Thursday, January 29, 2015

Creating Infographics With Young Learners

Source: ASIDE, 2015

In our previous post, we wrote about the infographics that second grade students created for their social studies unit. We’ve created infographics this year with a number of our elementary grades, and through trial and error, we’ve perfected the process to help them gather their data facts for the topics they researched.

Source, ASIDE, 2015

For younger learners, a clearly defined way of collecting the information is key. To do this, we designed the simple graphic organizer in this post to help them. The purpose of separating the number from the description is twofold. It not only clearly delineates the data from the facts, but it also aids in designing the actual infographic.

In order for the number to stand apart, it needs to be in its own textbox. This allows the data to be sized differently from the text in the infographic. The data piece is important. It should be more pronounced, in order to highlight each key fact in the overall design. We found that using this method with younger students also helped guide them through the editing process in writing the descriptions without repeating the number within the text.

Empowering kids to be their own content creators helps them visually look at ways to encode the design of information. We firmly believe that building the skills of design literacy develops a keen sense of how to manipulate content for maximum impact. It develops visual literacy and visual thinking, the key components of graphicacy. The process of shifting from linear to visual information aids the learning process by providing context for content individually and by educating others about their topics.

The earlier students learn to do this, the savvier they become at scrutinizing other information they see on a daily basis in the media. Understanding that design and media play a huge role in content creation can only help them as they go through the continual bombardment of advertising by infographics in the future.